Refund Fines and Ditch Lendal Bridge Trial Say York Lib Dems

York's Lib Dems say all the money raised from the city council's Lendal Bridge trial should be refunded to drivers.

It's estimated around £600,000 has been raised from around 40,000 motorists who have crossed the bridge between 10.30am and 5pm.

It comes after a similar experiment with a bus lane in Colchester led to Essex County Council deciding to refund £1 million it raised from motorists because of complaints of confusing signs.

When asked by Minster FM, the city's Lib Dem leader Keith Aspden said, based on current evidence, that he would abandon the Lendal Bridge traffic restrictions. The city's Conservative leader Chris Steward has already stated the party would ditch the traffic restrictions on Lendal Bridge if they come to power at the 2015 council elections.

Speaking on the issue of fines Keith Aspden said:

“Essex County Council listened to residents and took the sensible decision to waive the fines in Colchester after drivers said traffic signs were unclear. I am asking Labour run York Council to now consider a similar step.

“Since the Lendal Bridge closure began at the end of August I have been inundated with e-mails and letters from people who didn’t see or understand the unclear signs and inadvertently broke the restrictions.

“The council did not put up proper signs when the closure started. They went some way to admitting this by installing new signs at the beginning of December; however, the fines and complaints have continued.

“So far over 40,000 people have been caught out, city-centre trade has been damaged, congestion in other parts of the city has increased, and untold damage has been done to York’s reputation.

“It is now time for Labour to begin the process of reversing this harm by listening to residents, admitting they got it wrong, and following the example of another council which made similar mistakes.”